WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department’s third-ranking official, Rachel Brand, plans to step down after just 9 months on the job, the New York Times reported on Friday, at a time when President Donald Trump has taken aim at comparison law coercion officials.

Brand was next in line of period to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for slip of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s review into intensity collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia and either the Republican boss has unlawfully sought to hinder the ongoing probe.

Rosenstein oversees Mueller’s review since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the matter last year.

Brand’s abdication is the latest sign of misunderstanding at U.S. law coercion agencies, which have come under sustained attack by Trump and his Republican allies in new months. The Times reported that Brand will resign, citing two people briefed on her decision.

News of her depart comes a week after Trump authorized the recover of a formerly personal memo created by Republican lawmakers that portrayed the Russia investigation, primarily rubbed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and now headed by Mueller, as a product of domestic disposition against Trump at the Justice Department and FBI.

Trump also has criticized Sessions for recusing himself.

On Feb. 2, just hours before Trump authorized the recover of the Republican memo, Sessions offering regard for Rosenstein, the department’s No. 2 official, and Brand, observant they “represent the kind of peculiarity and care that we wish in the department.”

Neither Brand nor a Justice Department orator could be immediately reached for comment.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Eric Beech; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Eric Walsh and Daniel Wallis)

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Justice Department’s No. 3 central to resign: New York Times combined by Reuters on Fri, Feb 9th, 2018View all posts by Reuters →